The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-26
THE SPHINX.
The Eiuman-Headed Lion God Al.
ways a Marvel.
1T Existed Before the Pyramids and Was
Covered With Sand and Restored
When History Was Young
Later Labors.

Bvth ordinary traveller. the Sphinx
has for long been looked upon as one
of the wonders of the world; silently it
has stood there chin-deop in sand, gaz-
ing with PARKWAY look in its eyes,
as if it would probe the very depths of
eternity. As one gazeS up into Its
weather-beaten, time-wOrn face, one
longs for it to be able TO speak and tell
us of its history, who formed it, and
why. To-day, the energy of French
engineers is endeavoring to solve, in
part, the question. M. Grebaut, the
present keeper of Antiquities at the
Boulak Museum, has been struggling
valiantlv to disinter it from the sand,
which has buried it almost to the throat.
All dav long Arabs are employed load
ing trucks with the sand, which they
bring up in buckets to the tramway
above them. This is not the first at
tempt which has been made to uncover
this colossal monument of Egyptian an
tiuuitv. Thothmes ". cleared away the
sand; but by the fourteenth century B.
C. it was buried to the chin; in 1917,
Signor Caviglia brought to light the
fight of stone steps, forty feet in width,
described by Pliny; and in 1869, at the
time of the opening of the Suez canal.
the great Sphinx was cleared of sand
as far as the plateau upon which the
paws rest. Excavations southwark are
in progress, the result of which will
rhow whether the assumption that the
Sphinx stands in the middle of a huge
amphitheater hewn by man out of liv-
inc rock, be true or not.
We go below the level of the present
ground-for the steps lead down, not
up to the Sphinx-to gaze at the bat
tered monster, and are astonished at
his proportions. The human-headed
lion god, the impersonation of the sun
at rest. is upwards of one hundred feet
in height, and one hundred and ninety
feet in length. From west to east he
lies, in a straight line with Khafra's
Pyramid, his face being towards the
east. His enormous paws, partly
hollow, have been restored in Roman
times, and are well nigh covered with
the scribbles of Greek travellers, who,
like Tom Jones and John Brown of
these nineteenth-century days, have felt
it incumbent upon them to leave the
memorials of their visit behind them.
In the space between the paws, which
is thirty-five feet long and ten feet wide,
an altar stands; originally, there was a
small sanctuary here, lined with votive
tablets, but only the stella of Thothmes
~. now remains.
Three temples encompassed the
Sphinx-one to the north, dedicated to
Isis, which we know, from an inscrip-
ton. was still used in the sixth century
BIC, rs one Psametik, who was son of
Uzahor, the son of Noferabra, was then
-..the prophet of Hormakhu," and of
Isis, Queen of the Pyramids, and offered
to them holy incense. A second stood
upon the south side, wherein Osiris
.Sokar, the king of the underworld, was
specially invoked BY the pilgrims who
fiocked to his worship. The space all
round here was once vast metropolis.
called in the hieratic writings "Ro-set,"
the door of the acknowledgements. and
many strange stories are told of this
spirit-haunted, enchanted region. The
third temple is dedicated to Hormakhu,
sthe Sphinx himself.
The age of the Sphinx it seems i'm.
possible to know; but we gather that il
was standing in the days of Khufu, from
memorial tablet which speaks of the
temples; for there we learn that He,
the living Hor, King of the upper and
lower country-Khufu, he, the dispenser
--of life, found sanctuary of the goodies:
Isis, the Queen of the Pyramid, beside:
the temple of the Sphinx, northwest
from the temple and the city of Osiris
y the lord OF the abodes of the dead. HI
lsbuilt his pyramid (that of the Lights
near the temple of that goddess; and hi
built temple for the Kings daughter
Hontsen. near this temple" 1t existed
then, at any rate before the days OF th'
Pyramids of Gizeh; and Maspero thinks
that if it is not actually prehistoric, i
may, at all events, be looked upon q
the oldest monument in "ancien
Egypt"
Set into the breast of the Sphinx is thu
celebrated stella of Thothmes ". of tn,
twenty-third dynasty. 1t is fourteen
feet high, and contains a long inscrip
ton, recounting how the King owed hi
elevation to the throne TO the interior
ence of the god Hormakhu on his behalf
Bas-reliefs upon the tablet show us tn
King offering incense and pouring on
. hbation to the Sphinx, with beart
and oths. divine attributes. 1t also re
lates his dream. wherein the god bid
him dig away the sand. The following
translation is quoted from Btugsh Bey
s'0n one of these days it happened